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birthday cake

I absolutely love when my adult children come home. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen as often as I would like. Of course they are busy and have lives of their own. However, when they do come home I am always thrilled. Daughter Number Two joined us at home this past week and we celebrated her birthday. I chose to make one of her favorite cakes; Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake.

My memory doesn’t serve me as well as it used to. I cannot remember the first time we ate Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake. It was probably in the early 2000’s. One of my sisters-in-law served it at a family get together. D2 fell instantly in love.

Over the years Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake made appearances at many more family gatherings. Every time people gushed.

For D2’s 18th birthday she specifically requested Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake. While I have made almost every birthday cake for my children throughout their lives I did not make that one. I reached out to my SIL and asked if she would make it. She did not hesitate.

So, when D2 let us know that she would be home to watch D4 play softball I asked if we could celebrate her birthday. Although it would be a little early she agreed. Right then I asked what kind of a cake she wanted me to make. She said that any cake I made would make her happy. Again, she doesn’t get the chance to come home often and eat mom’s homemade cooking. I decided I would make Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake.

As often as I have eaten it I have never once made Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake. I got ahold of my SIL and asked her if she would mind giving me the recipe. She said that she was 30 minutes away from leaving town for vacation but she would get it to me. That speaks to the very heart of my SIL. I texted her to tell her not to worry, but as I was driving down the street (she and my brother live 2 blocks from my house) she stepped out holding a piece of paper; the recipe.

The smile on my daughter’s face when she saw Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake was worth it. She really loves this cake. I hoped that this cake would be as good as she remembered, especially because I had never made it.

Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake

After eating a birthday celebration meal of Tacos de Papa, D2’s new favorite as well as mine, we sang Happy Birthday. D2 got the first piece of Brooke’s Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake. It was good. Everyone in the house liked it. I saved one piece to share with my mother the next day, but sent the uneaten portion of the cake home with D2.

It is moments like this that truly fill my heart and soul. Spending time with family is so wonderful and I cherish the time with oldest 2 daughters so much now. Also, sharing food makes me truly happy. My SIL sharing her recipe with me so that I could make it for D2 was an act of love. My making this cake was an act of love. Food is my passion and definitely one of my love languages. The fullness I feel from sharing food and stories goes beyond the fullness I feel from merely eating food.

Two days after Daughter Number 3’s birthday we get to celebrate another birthday in our house. The Hubs birthday is on August 14th.

As is tradition, he gets to choose his birthday dinner and cake. Sometimes he opts to eat out. Sometimes he opts for no cake, because we usually have cake left from Daughter Number 3’s birthday. This year, he asked me to pick up some steaks to grill and some potatoes to bake (in my new convection oven). As for the cake, he wasn’t sure I needed to make him one because we had just had a big birthday cake. I acted a bit dejected or let down at not being able to bake him a cake. He said, “Well, you can make whatever you want to make for me. You could make me ‘That Mayonnaise Cake’.”

Still pouty, I started racking my brain to come up with a cake for The Hubs. He isn’t hard to please and I am fairly sure he has not met a cake he doesn’t like, but I wanted to make him something special. As I was doing my brainstorming I went in to the kitchen to make myself some brain juice (aka coffee). I pulled my DD Chocolate off of the lazy susan and noticed the K Mocha Coconut that Daughter Number 2 had purchased for her daddy as a special treat; one of his all-time favorites. I think the bells that went off in my head were loud enough that my 85 year-old neighbor could have heard them at his house. Mocha Coconut Cake.

I decided that I would use the recipe for That Mayonnaise Cake, substituting fresh, hot coffee for the warm water.

I searched for a coconut cake recipe and was disappointed in many of the recipes I found. I found one that seemed like it would work with some changes.

Coconut Cake

1 cup cake flour

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 sticks butter, unsalted, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

½ cup cream of coconut

½ cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon coconut extract

2-3 Tablespoons milk, to thin batter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 round cake pans. Set aside. Sift into a large mixing bowl flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using an electric mixer or stand mixer cream butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar in small batches until incorporated and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Reduce speed to low; add in half of sifted dry ingredients. Beat in cream of coconut, cream, and extract. Add in remaining dry ingredients until just combined. If batter seems too thick, add in milk to thin. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Turn out of pans onto wire racks and cool completely.

Coconut Butter Cream Frosting

1 stick butter, unsalted, room temperature

4 Tablespoons Cream of Coconut

2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon coconut extract

In a medium glass bowl beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add in cream of coconut and heavy cream. Add in powdered sugar ½ cup at a time, until desired consistency. Mix in coconut extract.

Toasted Coconut

¼ cup sweetened coconut flakes

¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place coconut on a baking sheet. Toast for about 5 minutes until becoming golden. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Chocolate Ganache

16 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate

16 ounces heavy cream

Place chopped chocolate in a large glass or metal bowl, free from any oil. In a large glass bowl, microwave cream for 60 seconds on medium high power. Microwave in 30 second intervals at medium high power until cream starts to bubble. Do Not Boil! Remove cream from microwave and pour over chocolate. Let stand for two minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula until completely mixed. Let stand to cool. The longer it stands, the thicker the ganache will become.

I assembled the Mocha Coconut Cake as follows. Place the cake plate on wire rack. Place an edged baking sheet under the wire rack. Lay parchment or waxed paper on the edges of the cake plate, to just under where the first layer will be. Place one mocha layer on cake platter. Spread top of cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting, about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Do not frost to the edge or on the sides. Sprinkle with Toasted Coconut. Gently place coconut cake layer on top. Repeat the Buttercream / Toasted Coconut filling. Gently lay the 2nd Mocha layer on top of Toasted Coconut, repeat filling layer. Add the last Coconut layer. Starting at the center of the top layer, pour ganache over the top. It will flow out to the edges and down the side. Using a spoon, pour ganache over the sides to drizzle down. It will flow over the cake plate and into the baking sheet below. Continue drizzling ganache until the sides are covered. Remove parchment or waxed paper from the plate. Wipe the plate edge to remove excess ganache. Place toasted coconut on the edge of the cake plate for decoration.

The Hubs was quite happy with the cake. He laughed a bit when he saw that I had made such a grand cake. It really was something! I have made quite a few three-layer cakes in the past but never a four-layer cake!

This cake was more than a morsel! It turned out even better than I had imagined and was an explosion of Mocha Coconut goodness! MochaCoconutHeaven is more like it! I am thrilled that I got to bake two cakes this week in my brand new oven. I am also thrilled that I don’t have any upcoming birthday to bake a cake for!

A few words of caution: this cake took quite a bit of time, with all of the different components and assembly. The ganache was delicious, but messy.